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A Good Story 

A frail, landless farmer, Dashrath Manjhi, was a daily wage laborer in the small Gahlor village, 75 kms from the Gaya district in Bihar. What made him different from the others was his positive attitude and determination.

Gahlor is a small village and people of Gahlor had to go to the nearest town for most of their needs. And there are no modes of transport from Gahlor to the town. People had to walk 75 kms by foot to reach the town. Even to visit a doctor they had to walk for miles on a muddy road to the town hospital. Many patients even died midway.

Dashrath Manjhi wanted to bring a ray of hope in this dark scenario. He wanted to construct a short cut so that the villagers could reach the town in lesser time and with ease. He came up with the idea of carving out a tunnel through a nearby mountain. The villagers laughed and scoffed at his idea and tried to put him down by saying that it was an impossible task. But Dashrath didn’t lose heart. He made up his mind to do it for his dear wife who had once slipped from the mountain while getting food for Dashrath.

With his meager income, Dashrath bought a chisel, a hammer and some nails and started his task, cutting through the hard rocks of the mountain. He worked day and night, chipping away little by little. Many a times he didn’t even bother to eat. It was after 10 years that the villagers could make the difference - they could make out a depression in the middle of the hill.  But still there was a long way to go.

At last, after 22 years of hard work and toil, Dashrath, a frail old man now, completed his task - a 360 ft long, 25 ft high and a 30 ft wide tunnel.  He had made the tunnel all by himself, driven by his determination and grit.

Now, the villagers didn’t have to cross the mountain, they could just go through the tunnel. This reduced the grueling distance to a considerable extent. The hand carved passage now stands as a landmark of Gahlor district.

Dashrath’s dream has come true but today, he is not alive to see the contented villagers cross that tunnel.